Elon Musk slams Trump's signature budget bill as a ‘disgusting abomination'

Al Jazeera

2 days ago

Billionaire Elon Musk has renewed his criticisms of United States President Donald Trump's signature budget bill, calling it a 'disgusting abomination' in a series of social media posts.
On Tuesday, just days after leaving his post in the Trump administration, Musk offered yet another broadside against the legislation, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill.
'I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,' Musk wrote. 'Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.'
His subsequent posts laid out the reasoning for his opposition, suggesting that the spending and tax cuts proposed in the bill would balloon the US national debt.
'It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt,' Musk said in one post. In another, he wrote, 'Congress is making America bankrupt.'
The bill would extend tax cuts established in 2017, during Trump's first term, and funnel more funds to his administration's priorities, including $46.5bn for the construction of barriers at the US border with Mexico.
But to accomplish those goals, critics have pointed out that the legislation would lift the cap on the national debt by $4 trillion. It would also limit access to social safety-net programmes like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known colloquially as food stamps.
The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan bureau that provides research to Congress, estimates that the bill will result in a $698bn reduction in Medicaid subsidies and $267bn less in funding for SNAP.
Those trade-offs have spurred concern on both sides of the aisle, with Democrats and some Republicans expressing fears that their constituents may lose their access to vital government services.
Fiscal conservatives, meanwhile, have baulked at the increase to the national debt.
In an early-morning vote on May 22, the House of Representatives narrowly passed the One Big Beautiful Bill by a tight vote of 215 to 214. Republicans hold a 220-seat majority in the 435-member chamber, but several members were either absent or voted 'present'.
Only two Republicans — Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio — broke with party ranks to vote against the bill. The House's 212 Democrats all voted against it as well, in a unified show of opposition.
That sent the bill to the Senate, where Republicans likewise hold a razor-thin majority. Senators are expected to weigh the bill in the coming days.
But following Musk's criticisms of the One Big Beautiful Bill, Massie chimed in to applaud the billionaire for his frank criticism.
'He's right,' Massie wrote in a brief post, to which Musk responded that his opposition was rooted in 'simple math'.
Musk also called on voters to 'fire all politicians who betrayed the American people' during the 2026 midterm elections — referencing what he considered wasteful spending.
Until last week, Musk had served as a special government employee in the second Trump administration, helping to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) since the president's inauguration in January. In that advisory role, Musk was tasked with identifying and eliminating 'waste' in the federal bureaucracy.
His and DOGE's efforts to slash the federal workforce, yank contracts and shutter government agencies, however, made them both a target for widespread criticism and lawsuits. Opponents accused Musk of engaging in conflicts of interest, including by attacking watchdog groups like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Federal law generally prohibits special government employees from serving for more than 130 days in a year, and Musk ended his tumultuous tenure in the Trump administration with an Oval Office sendoff last week.
Trump presented the billionaire with a decorative key to the White House and called his work transformational, crediting Musk with ushering in 'a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington'.
But in the lead-up to that goodbye, Musk appeared in previews for the TV show CBS Sunday Morning denouncing the One Big Beautiful Bill. He described its provisions as contrary to the spirit of DOGE's spending cuts.
'I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' Musk told CBS.
'I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful,' he added. 'I don't know if it could be both. My personal opinion.'
Those comments fuelled rumours of a widening rift between Trump and Musk, who had been one of the president's most prominent donors and proxies during his 2024 re-election campaign.
Still, the Trump administration has brushed aside reports of tensions between the two men. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, for instance, shrugged off a question about Musk's latest fusillade from her podium at the White House briefing room.
' Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn't change the president's opinion,' she said. 'This is one big, beautiful bill, and he's sticking to it.'
Leavitt did, however, blast Republican senators who opposed the legislation for 'not having their facts together'.
One of those senators is Rand Paul of Kentucky, who voiced his support for Musk's dissent against the bill on Tuesday.
'I agree with Elon. We have both seen the massive waste in government spending and we know another $5 trillion in debt is a huge mistake,' Paul wrote. 'We can and must do better.'
Trump, however, lashed out against Paul on social media and defended his budget bill, calling it a 'WINNER'.
'Rand votes NO on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas. His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can't stand him,' Trump said. 'This is a BIG GROWTH BILL!'